Coral M. Jud, Au.D. wanted to work in hearing healthcare from the time she was a little girl. After her mother-in-law purchased Berry Hearing Aid & Audiology Centers in 1978 and she attended a national audiology convention, Jud decided to go back to school and get her audiology degree. She’ll celebrate 36 years of working as a hearing healthcare professional in January 2015.

Dr. Coral Jud

Berry Hearing Aid and Audiology Centers is the oldest hearing aid center in the Fort Dodge area. Dr. Jud, who bought the center from her mother-in-law in 1995, served for 17 years on licensing boards in Iowa and attends training seminars to keep up with the latest hearing technology. “If someone has something better, I want to know about it,” she said. “It’s part of developing that trust factor because that’s what’s really important. The patient and audiologist must trust each other. It’s critical for success.”

Dr. Jud said the most challenging aspect of working in hearing healthcare is treating those who are in denial and blame hearing aids for their physical limitations. “Hearing aids amplify sound but they can’t duplicate what the brain does,” she said. “No matter how we try to explain that, some people just don’t accept it. Some people think hearing aids are all the same and they can pick them up and go on their way to better hearing.”

Those cases are the minority. Dr. Jud said her favorite part of being a hearing healthcare professional is working with people of all ages. In recent years she said she’s noticed a larger percentage of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s coming in to have their hearing tested. “They do what they need to do to rehabilitate their hearing,” she said, “and don’t balk about it. Technology is so much farther advanced that hearing aids do what they’re supposed to do now – help people hear better in all of their listening environments.

"It’s fun to fit hearing aids," she said. "Now we can do a better job of helping them hear better."

Her favorite hearing device success story involves a patient in his 70s who had hearing aids that he’d worn for several years. The healthy, active senior who is in very good shape and socially involved, insisted upon ordering the same hearing aids he’d always worn. “I got him a set and let him try them, but told him I thought he’d hear better with hearing aids from a different company,” she said. “When he put the set on I had recommended, he was amazed at the high frequency sounds he could hear and how much better speech could be pulled from the noise. He told us about all the different listening environments he had been in and how much better he could hear. It really made me feel like I had done my job.”

Berry Hearing Aid & Audiology provides full comprehensive hearing evaluations and testing and dispenses several different hearing device manufacturer’s products in order to give the consumer a variety to choose from. Patients follow a preventative maintenance program and staff conduct regular hearing aid adjustments in an effort to minimize problems before they occur.

“People talk and we have a good reputation of being honest and trustworthy,” Dr. Jud said. “We try to help them with hearing loss and not just sell them hearing aids. They tell me 'I like coming to you because you tell it like it is.' Is there any other way?”

To contact this clinic, read reviews or for more information regarding locations, hours of operations or methods of payment, please visit the Healthy Hearing professional section: Berry Hearing Aid & Audiology Centers.

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